The Good Life (What is it?) -- How to Attain It
Updated: Mar 29
Ms. Tamara Moskal's Synopsis:
A good life appears to lie before us, yet it's still beyond our reach when we get the seemingly last missing piece to make us happy. Yearning for fulfillment is a universal human experience, and we can approach it in different ways. Devotees find their answers in religious salvation, while others accumulate wealth and seek hedonistic pleasures.
Nihilists and Existentialists believe in creating our significance by pursuing our passions and selfless acts. While the two first options are often unsatisfactory, creating a purposeful life leads to deeper fulfillment. Find the meaning that resonates with you and make an achievable plan to live the happy life you want.
Why Our Efforts Fall Short
Many of us live much of our lives believing something is either amiss or not okay, whether personal or external. We chase after this missing piece, convinced that only when we remove or add the necessary element will we finally live the life we were working so hard for.
Yet, even when we achieve our goals or acquire what we desired, a nagging sense of incompleteness often remains. No matter how hard we strive, the journey towards the "good life" seems to stretch endlessly before us. We chase a vision that appears to be constantly receding, like a certain character's hairline.
This yearning for something more, something that will finally fulfill us, is a universal human experience. The only way to break it is through either death or through the embrace of disatisfaction.
Throughout history, different cultures have offered answers in the form of religious salvation. In Judaism, there's the hope for a Messiah. In Christianity, the belief in Christ's arrival and the Day of Judgement. Both promise an end to our earthly struggles and a final, perfect state.
While I'm not a religious scholar, these examples highlight our enduring desire for an ultimate solution, a single event that will bring an end to our lifelong search for happiness. However, this very pursuit may be leading us astray.
Perhaps, true fulfillment lies not in reaching a final destination, but in embracing the journey itself?
Finding Your Own "Good Life"
Some chase the promise of a blissful afterlife, believing the "good life" waits beyond this world, earned through unwavering devotion to a higher power. Others believe it lies in the accumulation of wealth – the more they possess, the fuller their lives will be.
However, there's another school of thought: those who embrace Nihilism or Existentialism. They mock the idea of an inherent meaning, embedded to the universe necessarily. They suggest life has no predetermined purpose. Instead, they believe we create our own significance through actions like artistic expression, selfless acts, or simply pursuing what ignites our passions.
Ultimately, satisfaction isn't a singular destination reachable through one specific path. It's a spectrum, built from a combination of factors like contributing to something greater, achieving personal goals, and experiencing moments of joy.
Fulfillment Beyond the Fleeting
A good life goes beyond fleeting pleasures. It involves a sense of accomplishment and the pride that comes from living authentically, AKA, living the life that we want to live. The hedonistic pursuit of pure pleasure alone often leaves a void, lacking the depth found in a life filled with purpose.
Personally, I find comfort in the existentialist perspective. Wagering this whole lifetime on the hope of an unknown afterlife seems like a waste of potential, while I have my own ways to live. Logically, with so many religions existing, the odds of choosing the "correct" one to secure eternal reward seem improbable.
Similarly, chasing material wealth offers a fleeting high. The initial thrill of acquisition fades as possessions become commonplace. The truth is, the wealthy have their own struggles, and financial security doesn't guarantee lasting happiness or even an honest friendship.
Personal Reflections
The human quest for the "good life" often encounters a roadblock: The nagging feeling that something is missing, regardless of external circumstances. We therefore face a choice: Accept this disquiet or take action to create a life of meaning. The latter path leads to a deeper satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment fueled by pursuing goals aligned with our values.
This yearning for purpose resonated with me even during my seemingly happy childhood. Joy filled my days, but it lacked substance. While basic needs were met, a void persisted. Leisure activities with family, though enjoyable, felt insufficient at times, even bordering on depressing.
This disquiet sparked my interest in philosophy in my early teens. I craved more than fleeting pleasure. I wanted my limited time on earth to matter. Only when I delve into projects like writing these articles, do I experience a different kind of joy – one that transcends the emptiness of of this universe as I perceive it.
It's a joy imbued with a sense of contribution, a fulfillment that strengthens my embrace of wanting to live life by desire, and not by consent. This philosophy resonates with me because it emphasizes that existence precedes meaning. We are not pre-programmed with purpose; we create it through our actions and endeavors.
In societies that do not properly designate personlized purpose of each of our lives, that task falls on us.
The Blueprint
Ultimately, relying on external forces to define your worth is a gamble. These forces are often beyond your control or influence. So why not forge your own path, if you want to make the best decision for yourself? Why not actively create meaning and purpose through your choices and contributions to the world?
This is the essence of crafting your own "good life": a journey of self-discovery and fulfillment, fueled by the pursuit of meaning and the satisfaction of leaving your unique mark on the world. And you cannot know what a good life to live for youself, if you have yet to face yourself, and study it on all of its complexities, strengths, weaknesses and contradictions
A good way to plan for the life you want to live, a life that resonates with you, is to make this collaboration between your ambitions and between the parts of yourself you can actually change. What exactly within yourself is to be changed in the name of the life you wish to live? Who is anyone to judge? You are the one who spends the most of the time with their self, being literally imprisoned in it.
Don't just pray or hope to manifest. Actually come up with a plan that could work with enough time and effort. Do you really want to live the life you're currently living? Simply living that life you won't necessarily want, from day to day, month to month, would only enable its continuation.
Why, then, should you resume enabling it any longer?
Mr. Nathan Lasher's Review
The good life is a subjective life as it only relates to your own cognitive reality. Meaning, your idea of the good life might be different from everyone else’s. You can choose to either have a good life for yourself or choose to help others reach their own “good” life. Which one will fill you more. It can feel empowering to help someone else reach their own good place. It can also help you in trying to find your own.
If anyone needs help in discovering their own good life, look no further than making a list of everything you’d like to accomplish in this life in order of importance. It will create a goal line which will not only let a person know they have reached it but more so it will show them how they reached it. Truly a great thing when you realize you can help others out who have been struggling with similar things.
It really is all about picking up the right habits which will result in you reaching your own good life. I want to run a marathon. It might be a good example of the “good” life. You prepare for that by running each and every day. The good life is nothing more than the manifestation of your actions' consequences. Whether that is making drastic changes or if you just want to work on one thing at a time such as a vehicle you might want to buy.
You get it by saving money until you have enough. That is the actions required for life to present you with a piece of the good life. Stop, rinse, take away, Repeat. You reach your entire good life by putting in the effort to get yourself a little piece of it. Life is all about stepping stones. Once you learn what it took to get you to that point you will see what kind of effort it took and have a better realization of what will go into creating the good life.
